Man Digs Up Mortar Shell

[Buster]

Here Is a Good Story...Buster...

Man finds mortar shell during backyard dig





June 5, 2008 - 7:15AM
Jonas Hogg | Florida Freedom Newspapers

SPRINGFIELD - Anyone who has sunk a shovel into North Florida soil can attest to the difficulty of digging a hole here. There is immovable clay, gnarled roots, submerged boulders and, for David Broome, a Vietnam-era mortar shell.
Broome's backyard pool project became an exercise for Tyndall Air Force Base's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team on Tuesday when he unearthed a "small, torpedo-looking device" that was about 12 to 15 inches long, according to a Bay County Sheriff's Office incident report.
Broome used an excavator to dig his pool bed, and then realized he needed to extend one side about a foot. Having already returned the heavy machinery, he grabbed a shovel and went to work.
Broome said he had dug down about 18 inches when his shovel came to an abrupt halt with a resounding "clank."
"You think it's a piece of pipe under the yard," Broome said. "I tapped it with a shovel and dug around it and finally pulled it out."
Once Broome, a Marine Corps veteran, had the object in his hand, he said a rather unsettling realization came over him.
"Instantly, I knew what it was," he said. "I knew it was a round. I just didn't know it was live."
Broome notified law enforcement, and a Bay County Sheriff's Office deputy arrived to find a bit more than he anticipated.
"He expected to drive up and find a piece of PVC with a fuse sticking out of it," Broome said.
An old bit of military ordnance looked like the perfect job for the Bay County Bomb Unit, and if all of the members hadn't been out of town at a training conference, it would have been. Instead, the BCSO notified Tyndall EOD.
Staff Sgt. Howard Horton's team secured the device and transferred it to the base, where it was destroyed Wednesday.
The body of the device was metal, but the inner workings were not the stuff that goes boom.
"It was not live," Horton said.
He said the device was too weathered to find out the exact make of it, but he said it was certainly a military munition, likely used as a training device.
The device probably was snagged as a souvenir during training, Horton said.
"Somebody a while back brought it home with them, and painted it a pretty color, and put it up on the fireplace. Then, when they were leaving, they just threw it in a hole out back," he said.
Broome said he would sleep a little better knowing his yard was not used as an explosive dump. But he regrets giving up a potentially nifty conversation starter.
"I wish they wouldn't have destroyed it now," he said.

[Ric-san]

Wow...So much for digging your own pool here in the Florida panhandle...I guess I did a good job in getting an above ground pool...haha!

[janiece]

That would definitely be on the list of things that would change your whole day! I'd be rather manic the rest of the day for sure.

[EBCIII]

Now that is a dig! Good story Buster, Beale.

[anne]

That could have been so much worse, thanks for the read Buster.

[prizm-pal]

Just goes to show you never know what is below the surface anywhere you dig...could have been different results...kinda makes you think when digging under you're coil!...never know! Thanks Buster!

[Georgia girl]

Great story Buster thanks for sharing.

[silentknight]

makes me think twice before hitting the relic mode ,,,,,

[Zman]

That could have been ugly. Hearing "clank" to find out it was shell.

[leelo]

GREAT STORY BUSTER> YA NEVER KNOW>